


The Draw

by Greggles_Lestrade



Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, No PDS, Simon Monroe is an English teacher, Suicidal Thoughts, Teacher-Student Relationship, in later chapters I'll make a note on the chapters in specific
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-14 16:24:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2198658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greggles_Lestrade/pseuds/Greggles_Lestrade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the present moment Kieren Walker was less than happy about his life. His on-again off-again boyfriend Rick had just been deployed to Afghanistan leaving Kieren defenseless against Bill Macy, who would like nothing more than to see Kieren go down in flames. With half the town of Roarton against him, his supportive yet apathetic parents telling him that things will get better, and the undiscriminating aggression of the high school masses, even the impermeable cheer of his best friend (forever) Amy can’t lift his spirits. Then he walked into Simon Monroe’s classroom.<br/>-On hiatus at the moment-</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So here is an In the Flesh High School AU, because this needed to happen. 
> 
> I don't have a Beta so if there's a glaringly obvious mistake just comment on it or message me. 
> 
> I need more In the Flesh on my dash! catchingspace.tumblr.com Also I tend to post about the fic (even though no one cares), so if you want to add your thoughts, or if you'd like to see something in the fic I will be fucking ecstatic to talk to you! (Seriously, I had to look up how to write a bully for the Gary parts, I'm not even kidding) So come talk to me! Knowing people actually like my writing and respond to it gives me motivation!

Kieren Walker was ambushed as soon as he walked in the doors of his high school. “Hello Amy.” He managed to breathe out despite being suffocated by her embrace.

“I missed you so much!” Amy said, being awfully cheerful for the first day back to school. She pulled away, but only slightly, only enough to not crush his backbone anymore.

“You saw me yesterday. And the day before that, and practically every day this summer.” He said, cautioning a hand to reach up and push his bangs to the side. He could only imagine what this looked like to an outsider: a strange, colorful girl with a long poofy shirt and a flowery shirt clinging onto an awkward, skinny bloke that looked like he walked out of the dork factory (according to his sister Jem). “What are you doing here so early anyway?”

“To decorate my locker, dum-dum.” Amy grinned, letting him go and linking their arms together instead. They walked down the hallway that was just starting to fill with other groups of friends reuniting, on their way to his locker. “I’ve got stuff for yours too, of course.”

“Oh wonderful.” Kieren muttered, less than enthusiastic at his friend’s attempts to ‘cheer up his home away from home’. Of course, Amy always put her trademark cheer into everything that crossed her path; last year she managed to smuggle in a potted fern into her locker, Kieren had no idea how she managed to keep it alive the entire year.

He vaguely wondered what magnificent set up she had this year when he caught sight of who was hanging around his locker. Gary Kendall. _Fuck_ , Kieren thought as he glanced at the locker numbers, hoping that it wasn’t true, that his locker was down the next hallway. 231. 232. 233. 234. He stopped right beside Gary and his group. _Fuck_. Amy leaned against locker 233 with her arms crossed and glared at the group, while Kieren went about ignoring them and wishing that they would go away. If only he were so lucky.

As soon as he reached into his bag and pulled out his schedule for his locker combo, Gary snatched it out of his hands. “Hey there Walker.” He handed the schedule over his shoulder to one of his posse.

“Give it back, Gary.” Kieren said, rolling his eyes. It was the first day of the new school year and he already had to put up with this shit. It wasn’t fair.

“Oo, you’ve got English w’me, sunshine.” Dean grinned as he looked over Kieren’s schedule. He passed the schedule over to Freddie, who was standing on his right.

Gary ignored Dean’s comment. “How’s your sister, Walker? I saw her in the mall over the summer; it looks like she’s been filling out quite nicely. I can’t wait to get my hands on a bit of that.” He smirked.

“Fuck off.” Kieren said, trying to snatch back his schedule from Freddie, who wasn’t about to hand it back to him.

“But you wouldn’t know anything about girls, would you?” Gary continued, “Being what you are.” Freddie let the schedule flutter to the floor and as soon as Kieren crouched down to get it Gary quickly stepped on it with his boot. He leaned over, getting right up in Kieren’s face and said:

“Looking forward to being locker neighbors this year.” He smirked and pushed Kieren over easily, letting him sprawl on the floor while the three walked away.

Amy helped him up, “He’s such as asshole.” Kieren brushed himself off and leaned down to pick up his schedule, which now had a dark boot-print across the back. “We could go see if you could change lockers?” She suggested.

“You know they never do that, even if there is a real issue.” He unlocked his locker and opened it. Well, Gary hadn’t done anything to it yet, but Kieren was sure that he was going to open his locker one morning and a waterfall of dissected frogs was going to fall on him, or something equally as disgusting and humiliating.

“Gary /is/ a real issue.”

“Shouldn’t he have graduated by now?” Gary had been terrorizing Kieren for the last two years of his high school career (now going on a third it looked like).

“He was held back two years remember?” Amy said then shrugged. “Here’s the things for your locker, it’s looking a bit drab.” She smiled and rooted through her backpack, pulling out a picture of the two of them that they took over the summer that she had bedazzled in the corner with sparkly letters that spelled out BFFS 4EVR. She stuck the picture on the inside door of his locker with a bit of tape, “Now, that’s a little better, you have to admit.” Kieren couldn’t help but smile at her; it did make him feel a little more cheerful.

“I’m taking Photography this year, so don’t think I won’t decorate your locker even more!” Thus was the start of Junior year for Kieren Walker.

 

His first period French class consisted of the same 17 people that he had been taking French with last year, complete with bad accents and droning chant lead by the teacher. In all sincerity, Kieren didn’t think it was a bad class; it was just the people in the class that were the problem.Not to say that he was absolutely the most perfect student either but at least he tried to pay attention most of the time. Last year he had the task of waking up the sleeping kid next to him (It was a pair assignment and everyone else was already paired up), he woke up and asked what the math assignment they were working on was. At least Kieren knew what class he was in, so he figured everything else was just a bonus.

Of course the real reason he paid attention in class was because his French teacher often told them of her love affair with her pen pal from France named Guinevere. After the first or second week of class (last year), Madame Fosse noticed that no one was paying attention to what she was teaching so she just started talking about how everything was going to be better for her when she went to France to see Guinevere. There were only a few people listening to her over the loud din of the rest of the class. At first Kieren didn’t know what she was going on about, but as the year went on he found himself quite invested in the story. He would never tell anyone else—not even Amy, she would never let it go if she knew--but he found it really romantic.

Soon enough, the bell rang and everyone rushed out of the class to take advantage of the five minute passing period; everyone but Kieren, who didn’t understand why people were so anxious to talk to their friends who they just saw not an hour ago. During these five minutes, Kieren usually found himself trying to dodge groups of students—who found it their mission in life to stand in the middle of the hallway-- and trying not to get slammed into lockers by the other people trying to get by. Over the past few years he had gotten fairly good at this, so he managed to get to his next class with three or so minutes to spare.

The new English teacher was…not unattractive. He was wearing a suit which meant that he was taking the class seriously –at least until he realized that the students didn’t share his enthusiasm, then he’d turn into every other English teacher Kieren has had over the course of his school career. Kieren couldn’t deny that the suit was a good look though.

He took a seat in the second row of desks, near the center of the room (not too close to the teacher’s desk) and waiting for the class to start.


	2. Chapter 2

The teacher’s desk was located in the front corner of the room at the perfect angle to watch the last few students trickled in as the late bell rang. Mr. Monroe waited for the students to get settled in before he pushed off of his desk and went rolling across the front of the room, stopping his chair in the middle. In front of Kieren, coincidentally.

Kieren looked down at his desk as the rest of the class gave a short laugh at the teacher’s stunt. “As you can see, this class is going to be pretty laid back.” Mr. Monroe gave the class a half smile and looked around the room.

A student in the back spoke up, “But you’re wearing a suit.”

“And I see you aren’t.” The teacher threw back. Kieren couldn’t help but glance up as Mr. Monroe continued. “Anyway, welcome to Junior year English. This year is going to be focused creative writing and next year you’ll get to look forward to poetry.” The class groaned. “Exactly why I’m not teaching Senior English.” He rolled back to his desk and picked up a clipboard. “Now I’m not going to read attendance off everyday, but I probably should for the first couple of classes.” The teacher looked up from his clipboard, “But just because I don’t read it off everyday doesn’t mean I won’t be taking it. You’ll find I have a good memory for names.” Then he started going down the list and calling out names.

Kieren was usually always the last person to be called, given that his last name started with a ‘W’, so he sat there doodling on the cover of his notebook.

“Kieren Walker.” Both Kieren and Mr. Monroe look up at the same time, their eyes lock.

“Here.” Kieren said half raising a hand in the air then mentally berating himself for doing so. _He’s looking right at you, idiot, he can see where you are._

Mr. Monroe put the clipboard down, “Good. Now can I trust you guys to go and pick up one of each of those things by the back wall? Without killing each other.” Then the classroom was filled with the shuffle of half the class getting up at once to try and get the first pick of everything. Kieren waited, knowing that he’d probably hurt himself (and others) if he tried to brave the crowd, so he was one of the last one’s to sit down.

“That was, somewhat reasonable. Now what you have in front of you is a syllabus, which you can read on your own time, because I’m sure it’s just the same shi—stuff that the rest of your classes are going to go over. The next thing is a book: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. This is the first book we’re going to be reading. Don’t look up the summary on Sparknotes or everyone will be writing a five-page paper on the book. And that stands for every book that we read.

“The third thing you have in your possession is a notebook. You’re going to take this notebook and write everyday in it.” He started explaining the assignment, which earned him groans from some students and threatening glares from others. Kieren didn’t think it was a bad idea; he’d heard that writing in a journal helped some people with their depression but he hadn’t ever gotten around to starting one for himself. He always thought that his life was too boring to be worth journaling about.

Mr. Monroe continued, “Don’t forget to date the pages and have your name somewhere where I can find it. Losing the notebook isn’t going to get you out of the assignment so don’t even try. Questions?”

A girl’s hand in the front went up immediately, Kieren recognized her from his art class last year. “Can we decorate the covers?” She asked. Kieren could tell she already had an idea and it was probably going to be extravagant.

“Sure.” The teacher answered with a less than enthusiastic shrug. “No crude drawings and no glitter, that stuff gets everywhere and it’s a pain in the ass to get off.” No one else had any more questions since most of the class was stunned to silence by the fact that the teacher cursed. A teacher cursing is right up there with unintentionally drawing of something that looks like a dick on the whiteboard. The country of Italy is often the victim.

“Anyway, read the first chapter for class tomorrow, be ready to discuss it. Don’t forget about writing in your notebook. Now get out of here.” That was all the class needed to start throwing things into their bags and push their way out of the classroom. Mr. Monroe looked out at the mostly empty classroom, “Well that worked.”

Kieren looked up from putting his things in his backpack. “Seriously?” Mr. Monroe raised his eyebrows and gave him a look that said, ‘I don’t know what you mean’. Kieren just shook his head and zipped up his bag.

 

Kieren stood awkwardly with his lunch tray and looked over the large crowd of students that had gathered in the cafeteria. He always hated this time of day; it made him feel small, pathetic. There was everyone else with their large groups of friends squished together at the long lunch tables, then there was him and Amy.

Of course there was Rick too, before he deployed. He was always good at making friends. Granted, they weren’t Kieren or Amy’s friends, they just _allowed_ them to sit on the fringes of the group during lunchtime because Rick was there. Rick always used to sit with them though, their connection with the rest of the student body.

He made his way towards the brightly colored person in the back corner. “Hey Amy.” He said with a sigh as he sat down across from her.

“So how’d your first four classes go?” She asked him and snatched a chip off of his tray.

“Good.” Kieren shrugged, pretending to ignore her thievery but grabbing his plastic fork to get ready for another attack. The chips were one of the only things that were actually eatable of the tray. “What about your classes?”

“Oh who cares about that,” She waved off the question, and picked at the wilted salad on her own tray. “Tell me about the new English teacher!”

“There’s not really anything to tell.” He shrugged and began pushing his unidentifiable pasta around. It was an attempt at pasta, but the sauce was a sticky paste and there were lumps that Kieren didn’t want to investigate. “I mean, he seems like he’s going to be good but-”

“But?!” Amy asked with dramatic flair, pointing an apple slice at him. “Is he hot? What was he wearing? What did he look like?”

He looked up just as she had started thrusting the apple slice at him. “He just looks like…a regular guy. Amy, he’s not that special.”

“Kieren, you’re my BFF, you’re supposed to tell me these things.The entire school is talking about him and you’re telling me that he’s ‘not that special’?” He shrugged and she rolled her eyes. “You know, sometimes I think you would be completely lost without me.”

“Completely.” Kieren nodded with a half smile, picking at his chips.

Not long after they finished pushing their uneaten food around on their trays, Amy pulled Kieren out of the cafeteria and back into the school. “What room is your English class, I want to sneak a peek at this mysterious Mr. Monroe.” Knowing that she would go to every other classroom to find the right one otherwise, Kieren told her.

She peeked into the classroom through the tiny window on the door. “Look at him.” She whispered then turned her head to see if Kieren was actually looking. He wasn’t. She rolled her eyes and pulled him closer so that he could peek through the tiny window as well. “He looks fabulous.”

Mr. Monroe was just sitting at his desk, eating a bag of crisps and scrolling through a website on his computer. Kieren didn’t see what was so _fabulous_ about him.

Amy moved forward, causing Kieren to kick the door with his boot. Mr. Monroe looked up and the two students scrambled out of the sight of the window, pushing their bodies against the door on either side of it. After a second or two, just to make sure that the teacher wasn’t going to investigate, Amy turned to Kieren and smiled. “So are you going to be my Maid of Honor?”

“What?”

“I’m going to marry him. He is my new husband.” Amy grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to say last time, the title is from The Draw by Bastille.  
> I'm really tempted to publish my writing playlist for this. (Tell me if you want me to)
> 
> Again, if you have any ideas for the fic, message me! 
> 
> My Tumblr: catchingspace.tumblr.com
> 
> (For some reason I don't think this is as good as the last chapter. That could just be me though. I had a hard time not to be completely boring with the class parts. You guys don't want to read the details of the assignments!)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing playlist that you guys wanted me to publish for some reason: http://8tracks.com/catchingspace/draw  
> (I even made it pretty for you)
> 
> If you guys have anything you want to see in this fic I AM COMPLETELY ACCEPTING ALL IDEAS/HEAD CANONS/ ETC  
> Seriously if you guys want, I dunno, Kieren and Simon to participate in a wet tee-shirt contest, message me and we can discuss the wonderful details. Here's a direct link to my ask box, in case you get lost. 
> 
> http://catchingspace.tumblr.com/ask
> 
> Shh, just come.
> 
> Also, this chapter has a bit of depressive thoughts in it. I don't think it's too bad but I figured I'd give you a warning anyway.

After school, instead of helping Amy plan her wedding (which she was completely serious about, unsurprisingly), Kieren went straight home. He had been waiting for a letter from Rick for about a week and a half now, and he had a feeling today would be the day.

“Hey mum.” He said as he walked in, “Any mail come for me today?” He asked anxiously.

“Yes, it’s on the table in the kitchen.” She replied and he almost ran to go get it.

Kieren passed his little sister Jem doing her homework at the table and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She looked up, “Okay Kier?”

“Yeah.” He smiled at her and dropped his backpack on the floor to pick up the letter that was laying on the table. To prevent Jem from reading over his shoulder like the nosey little sister she was, he dashed up to his room and closed the door. He jumped on his bed, unable to hide his grin as he ripped open the envelope.

> Ren,
> 
> Everything is about the same over here. Too much sand. It’s really boring and I’m not going to go into the details. You wouldn’t want to hear about it anyway.
> 
> You’re doing well I hope, you start school over there soon too, yeah? I hope Gary isn’t giving you too much of a bad time. If he gets up in your face, just punch him. Remember what I taught you, that wasn’t just for fun and games.
> 
> I got Dad’s letter the other day, looks like there’s gonna be a new school superintendent or something. Dad’s real happy about it, dunno why. Have you heard anything about it? It might effect you, especially if Dad’s so enthusiastic about it.
> 
> Did you take those art classes in the city during the summer like you told me you were gonna? You know how disappointed I’ll be if you say you didn’t, it’s your JUNIOR YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL, Kieren.
> 
> You gotta start thinking about your future. Maybe you can get the fuck out of Roarton! You need to go out and make your own way.
> 
> Rick

Kieren read and re-read the letter over and over again, until he could almost hear Rick’s voice. He knew it was only a couple of months since Rick had been shipped off, but it felt like everyday the distance grew larger and sooner or later one of them was going to blink out of existence.

The cellphone in his pocket started playing ‘Pocket Full of Sunshine’ at a ridiculously loud volume while vibrating obnoxiously, meaning only one thing: Amy was calling. He rolled around on his bed, trying to get his hand in the pocket of his skinny jeans as the song started to repeat.

“Kieren!” Jem called from downstairs, “Turn it off!” The song seemed to permeate through his closed door and down the stairs to where she was sitting in the kitchen, at the opposite end of the house.

He yelled a “Sorry!” before flipping his phone open. “Amy. You changed my ringtone again.”

“You just now realized that? I did that _ages_ ago.” Kieren could tell by her tone that she was rolling her eyes at him. “But I have something more important to ask you. How do you look in a suit?”

“A…suit?”

“For the wedding!” _Oh._ He had completely forgotten that she was still obsessed with her imaginary wedding with his English teacher. As soon as he saw Rick’s letter on the table, everything else sort of melted away. “I need to know if you’ll be wearing a suit or a bridesmaid’s dress.”

 _A bridesmaid’s dress?_ “Um, Amy, you do know I’m a male, right?” He could imagine himself in some large, poofy, purple dress that she would make him wear.

“Men can wear dresses too, dum-dum.” She said in a singsongy voice. “I just don’t want you looking more handsome than the groom.”

“I-”

She cut off his answer, “Oh, gotta go, grandmum’s calling me. See ya tomorrow, love ya!” She blew kisses into the phone then immediately hung up. Kieren took the phone away from his ear and looked at it with a small frown. It was just like her to say something about putting him in a dress and then hang up on him. He flopped back on his bed with a sigh.

He couldn’t tell Rick that he actually _didn’t_ take the summer art classes. He couldn’t tell Rick that he only said he would because Rick was being deployed _the very next day_ and he didn’t want him to worry. He couldn’t tell Rick that he wasn’t able to move ahead with his life for _months_ because he kept replaying the day he left _over and over again_ in his head.

Kieren pressed the heels of his hands against his closed eyes, muttering a “Fuck” into the open air. He knew this would happen. It had happened every single time he had gotten a letter from Rick. This mass of swirling thoughts that rattled around in his brain like a dark storm cloud would growing bigger and bigger and bigger until…

He rolled off his bed and trudged downstairs to get started on his homework.

 

Kieren collapsed gracefully onto the sofa. “KIEREN! Get off you big, lazy antelope!” Jem yelled from under him.

“Oh, I think the sofa is trying to tell me something.” He feigned ignorance, looking around the living room expecting to hear the ‘sofa’ speak to him again.

“Get up, your bony ass is digging into my thighs!” Jem wiggled, trying to escape out from under her brother.

“This seat is rather rude.” Kieren stood up and turned. “Oh, hi Jem.”

“You are such a nerd.” She said but couldn’t hide her smile.

“I love you too.”

Their mom, Sue, walked in from the kitchen (it was one of her nights to cook otherwise it was Steve who was in the kitchen most of the time). “Would you two mind running down to the store? We ran out of margarine.”

Jem stood up, “I don’t think I want to be seen out in public with this dork, someone might think we’re related.”

“Too late, I already told everyone at school. Do you want to wear our brother-sister shirts that Aunt June got us for Christmas?” Kieren asked, slinging his arm over his little sister’s shoulders as they walked out of the house.

“We seriously should have a bonfire and burn those.” Sue heard Jem reply as the door closed. She shook her head and pretended she didn’t hear anything.

Jem continued once they were outside of the house. “I’m being completely serious.”

“I know you are.” He said as they walked down the driveway

“Then we could dance around the bonfire and hope our sacrifice to the gods appease them.”

“Yeah, that sounds fun, but I don’t think our neighbors would like that very much.” Kieren grinned down at her. It seemed like she was growing taller everyday, sooner or later he wasn’t going to be able to look down at her anymore.

“Probably not, but that’s not our problem, is it?” She replied with a smile as they turned off the road to take a shortcut to the store. “What did the letter say?”

It was a sudden change of subject but it wasn’t like Rick had written him a love letter (Kieren would probably faint if he did) so he didn’t really have anything to hide. At least he got more detailed letters than Rick’s mom did, he was fairly positive of that. “Not much, he doesn’t like to talk about what it’s like over there.” He shrugged, “He did say that his dad wrote to him about a new superintendent for the school.”

“Ew. Was Bill Macy happy about that?” Jem always made a face when he brought up school.

“Apparently. And that can never be a good thing.” Kieren said as they walked in the sliding doors of the grocery store.


	4. Chapter 4

Every Wednesday morning, long before the students start stumbling into school, the teachers had a meeting. Usually all the meeting entailed was coffee, donuts, and the occasional funny story about their students. Rarely are issues actually brought up because the higher staff (the principal mainly) believed they had perfected the system. So the system remained stagnant. That Wednesday morning, however, was different. There were no donuts. No funny student stories exchanged. Only Maxine Martin.

The teachers were arranged around the large table, looking expectantly at the woman at the head of the table. “Okay.” She started with a fake smile, obviously perfected. “Let’s get started. As you might already know, my name is Maxine Martin, the newly elected superintendent for the school district. I’ve decided to start my reign at your school since it perfected the art of student-teacher discipline. I was excited to come here and learn new ways of doing things, you can imagine my surprise when I got here to discover everything was entirely unchanged over the years. What happened? This school used to be the symbol of educational progress across the country. I’m here to get it back to standard."

She looked around at the teachers faces, most managing to hide their shock and lack of enthusiasm. “I’ll be working along with the principal to make the big changes, but I’ll need your help to enact the smaller changes and to get the students on board with them. It’s going to be some hard work but I think we can get it done.” She gave her audience another smile and a nod before sitting down, giving the floor to the principal, who received mutinous looks from as he stood up to speak.

“I am in full support of Miss Martin’s plan. I think It’ll be good for the school and for the students. I urge you to think on it and bring any issues that you might have to Miss Martin here.” And with that, he sat back down again.

After the ‘meeting’ that was more like a campaign speech, the new Junior English teacher, Simon Monroe, approached the principal. The principal had directed all of the questions and concerns the teachers had to Miss Martin after they all swarmed them after the meeting was adjourned. He was currently working on his fourth cup of coffee and wished he was in his office so that he could add something stronger to the steaming mug. The man looked up as Simon approached, “Direct all questions to Miss Martin please.” He said with a sigh, starting to get a migraine.

“Um, actually it’s not about that.” Simon took a seat beside the other man. “I was actually wondering if the school has a LGBTQ club.”

The principal blinked at him. “A GL-what?”

“Gay-Straight Alliance.” Simon said dully.

The light of recognition spread across the principals face, “Oh, yes, yes.” He looked off at the other teachers as if the conversation was over with.

“Yes, the school has the club?” Simon’s eyes narrowed slightly in confusion at his answer.

The other man turned back to him. “What?” He paused as if he had forgotten what they were talking about. “No, no we don’t.”

“Well, I’d like to start one up, if that’s okay. I think it would be good for some of the students.”

“Yes, yes, of course. Talk to the ladies in the office, they’ll get it all set up.” The principal nodded in Simon’s general direction, then stood up and wandered in the general direction of his office.Simon watched him go, figuring that answer was as good as he was going to get.

 

Kieren was busy lifting some of his textbooks onto the top shelf of his locker when someone grabbed him from behind. “Ahhh!” He let out a short high pitched scream before realizing: “Amy! Don’t _do that_!” He let out a huff and continued to sling things into his locker.

“But it’s so _easy_.” Amy mumbled into his back, then put her chin on his shoulder. “I can’t help it, you’re just so adorable when you’re terrified for your life.” She reached up and pinched one of his cheeks.

“Amy.” He groaned, hoping that Gary wasn’t going to pop around one of the corners and see them. Kieren didn’t exactly know what Gary would do, but he knew it would probably be horrible and potentially painful.

“Kier…ren?” Kieren turned to see Mr. Monroe standing there, looking a little confused.

“Oh. Hi…Mr. Monroe.” The volume of his voice gradually lessened to that of a small whisper.

Amy gasped into his ear and then whispered, “That’s your English teacher?” She quickly removed herself from Kieren’s back and said in a louder volume. “Well aren’t you going to introduce us, Kieren?”

He rolled his eyes. “Amy, this is my English teacher, Mr. Monroe. Mr. Monroe, this is Amy.” He said robotically.

“Pleasure.” Amy said, lifting her hand as if the older man was going to kiss it like in a medieval court.

“Um.” Simon blinked at Kieren then looked at Amy. “Nice to meet you.” He cleared his throat. “I have to, um, go get ready for class.”

Amy turned to her best friend as the teacher left.

“What?” Kieren asked, closing his locker. She grabbed his arm as they started walking down the hall in the opposite direction that Mr. Monroe had gone.

“I do believe, he is madly in love with me. Don’t you think?”

Kieren humored her. “Oh, yeah, Amy, of course. That look on his face? That was confusion from falling in love with you so fast.”

Amy stared at him with her mouth pursed until he looked back at her. “You are a little shit, Kieren Walker.” She couldn’t contain her smile as she whacked his closest shoulder. He laughed along with her.

As they neared her first period classroom —she always made Kieren walk her to it because that’s what best friends do, apparently—they stopped in front of the door. “What are you doing after school today?”

“Homework. Why?”

“I want you to help me work on my bucket list.”

“You have a bucket list?”

“Not yet, but that’s why you’re coming over.” She grinned at him, swirled around and entered her classroom.

 

There was a definitive reaction from Mr. Monroe when Kieren got to English that day. “That…your…Amy?” The teacher stuttered.

Kieren laughed, “Yeah, she’s unique.“

“Definitely makes a first impression.“

“And a second, and a third.” Kieren grinned and Simon shook his head with a small smile on his face as the rest of the students filed in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just going through this to post and I realize there's fuck ton of dialogue. *Frowny face* Meh, what yah gonna do. 
> 
> Yeah, it was supposed to be longer, but *see last sentence above*


	5. Chapter 5

It was a few weeks later before the LGBTQ club was official. There were even flyers. They weren’t terribly exciting, there were no fancy colors, just the information that the students needed if they wanted to join. Simon Monroe wasn’t a rainbow person.

 

Kieren was sitting at the usual lunch table, waiting for Amy, when a piece of paper was shoved in his face. He snatched it away just in time to see Amy sit down across from him. “What-“

“Read it.” She mumbled with her mouth already full of pizza. Wednesdays were the best days of the week regarding lunches, the cafeteria actually ran out of food the first time they introduced pizza to the menu. The students almost rioted.

Kieren looked down at the slightly crumpled piece of paper. _LGBTQ Club. Wednesdays after school. Room 216._ He looked back up again to find Amy staring at him. “Okay?” “

We’re going.” Amy said, nibbling on an apple slice.

“You do know that the A in LGBTQA _doesn’t_ mean allies right?”

“I’m panromantic dumdum.” Amy rolled her eyes as if she couldn’t believe that he didn’t see that sooner. “I might not be a six on the Kenzie scale but I’m at least more than a two and a half. Besides, that scale is way too constricting.”

“I wonder how many people will show up.” He picked a pepperoni off of his pizza and ate it. “Besides us.”

Amy took the flyer back, “Well it’s not particularly eye-catching. I would have gone with rainbows and glitter.”

“Of course you would have.” Kieren tried not to roll his eyes, “Maybe we can see if the teacher leading it would let us make new posters?”

This got Amy excited. “Arts and crafts! I can take pictures! You can draw stuff. It’s going to the best club ever!”

“Especially if we’re the only two in it.” Kieren said off hand while Amy continued to list thing that they could do. Sleep overs, field trips, and bake sales being among the chosen activities.

“And our logo can be a dragon riding a unicorn!”

“That…” Kieren narrowed his eyes, “doesn’t make any sense. At all.”

“A unicorn riding a dragon?” Amy tilted her head.

“Dragon unicorn.”

 

When they entered the classroom after school, the only other person there was Mr. Monroe —who was definitely _not_ playing minesweeper on his computer. Kieren held the door open as Amy skipped into the classroom, “Oh good, we’re the first one’s here, we get to pick our seats.” Kieren sighed and walked in after her, sitting in a seat beside the one she chose.

Mr. Monroe cursed quietly at his desk and opened up a new game of minesweeper. He was just biding time until 3 o’clock, then he told himself that he was going to start regardless of how many people were in the classroom for the club. As the day went on, he became less and less certain about the whole ‘club-thing’. There hadn’t been one before, why did he think that there was a demand for one amongst the students? Even if there was a sizable LGBTQ population at the school, how many were out? How many would risk coming to the club? To be honest, he was kind of relieved that Kieren and his friend Amy were there. At least the club wasn’t a complete bust.

Kieren looked at the teacher for a second, then glanced up at the clock on the wall. Surely Mr. Monroe knew that this was it, this was his club. Wishful thinking, Kieren supposed, he wouldn’t want to have them in the club alone either. There needed to be a buffer to counteract Amy’s…spirit. Kieren was not enough of a buffer on his best days (and those were fewer and fewer the longer RIck was away).

With about 8 minutes till the hour, Kieren pulled out his sketchbook and turned to his unfinished sketch of the ‘dragon unicorn’. He wasn’t one to normally draw fantastic creatures, for some reason he liked to stick to real life as a subject, but he thought it would be a good practice. How many times does someone get to draw a dragon and unicorn mix? (The answer depended on whether or not they had Amy as a friend.)

Amy leaned over, “Oh, don’t forget the wings.” She poked at the page where the wings would be.

“I’m not there yet, this is just a sketch.” He brushed her hand away and continued to work on the tail. Everything was going to be dragon except for the horn (of course), the tail, and the back feet which were going to be hooves. Kieren didn’t know how he was going to manage it, he’d probably need to look at some reference photos. Not that he’d tell Amy that, she might want to go in search for real horses, or a dragon. He wouldn’t doubt it. Maybe he could bring it up before that camping trip she was planning for her bucket list.

The clock hand clicked audibly over to the twelve in the silent room. All three pairs of eyes looked up at it, then over to the door where they expected someone to come rushing in. Surprisingly, someone did.

Lisa Lancaster. “Hi.” She said with a smile, adjusting her messenger bag at her side, “This the club?”

Simon waited for a beat, registering. “Yeah, go ahead and have a seat.” He stood as she crossed the room and took a seat beside Amy, automatically striking up a conversation with her. Kieren tried to follow what they were talking about but he was suddenly distracted by a sliver of skin brought about by his teacher stretching. His brain short circuited and the next thing he knew the desk beside him was being pulled forward, spun round, and pulled to the middle to make a vague group shape. Mr. Monroe plopped down in the desk. “These are smaller than I remember.” He commented.

“Yeah? No shit.” Kieren said. “Tell me something after four hours sitting in one.” Teachers complaining about something that students had to deal with all the time was one of Kieren’s pet peeves.

“Well maybe I’ll have to schedule more days out of the classroom.” Simon responded.

Amy jumped into the conversation. “Poetry on the grass outside! I’m so jealous.”

“Not a bad idea.” He nodded at her. “I would say you’re welcome to join us, but as a teacher I’m supposed to _promote_ you attending class.”

“Well, I would be attending _a_ class.” Amy reasoned getting a thoughtful look on her face, as if she was actually trying to figure out how to get out of her second period class.

“The class you’re supposed to be in.” He said, shifting in the desk. “Anyway, we’re not here to think of ideas on how to get out of going to class-” The door opened again and in stepped Gary and his crew. The worst thing that Kieren thought could happen, did.

“I hope we’re not too late for the festivities.” Gary let his eyes wander over the members of the club before sitting down at the desk behind Kieren. His two followers followed suit.

“Why don’t we all move and make an actual group.” Mr. Monroe said, looking at where Gary and his minions decided to sit. Kieren sighed, of course they were forced to move to accommodate Gary and his gang. He slid his sketchbook and pencil into his backpack then made the complicated move to end up sitting next to Mr. Monroe. Amy was on the other side followed by Lisa, leaving Gary to sit right next to Kieren. He took back what he thought before, he would rather it be just him and Amy in the club.

“That’s better.” The teacher said, “I think we should start by introducing ourselves, and I suppose why we’re here? If everyone is comfortable with that.” He looked around the circle. “I guess I can start. We’re outside of school hours so I suppose you can call me Simon. I was really surprised that the school didn’t have this club yet, I know it can be vital to a lot of students wellbeing.” He shrugged then looked over at Amy, clearly done with his introduction.

Amy perked up when she saw that it was her turn. “I’m Amy of course. I’m panromantic bisexual? I lean more towards men really.” She glanced at Simon as she said this. “I’m really excited for all the fun things that we’re going to do.”

Simon tilted his head slightly while looking at her. “I haven’t really planned anything-“

“Oh she has. She has a list.” Kieren spoke up and the older man looked over at him. “She’s already planning arts and crafts to make better posters.”

Simon opened his mouth to object but Amy beat him to the punch, “Please don’t say there’s nothing wrong with the posters. They’re pathetic.”

“Alright, enough about my supposedly pathetic posters.” Simon looked over to Lisa.

“Oh, me? Okay. I’m Lisa. I’m bi. My girlfriend Lola is sick today otherwise she’d be here too. And I for one think that this club is a great idea.” Lisa said, sitting back in her chair.

“I’m Freddie, this is Dean.” Freddie motioned to Dean who was sitting right beside him. “We’re here for…reasons.” Kieren rolled his eyes, _seriously? Reasons?_ He looked at Simon, surely he wasn’t going to allow that.

“I’m Gary, and I think we all know why I’m here.” Gary said with a smirk. “I’m here for _Ren_ , of course.” He reached over and ruffled Kieren’s hair.

“Don’t call me that.” Kieren slapped Gary’s hand away. _Only Rick calls me that._ “Why don’t you just leave us alone? Or do you have to ruin everything?” Kieren glared at Gary, and Gary engaged him in an intense staring contest. Amy was afraid one of them would internally combust and, going off of hair color, the likely choice would be Kieren.

“Alright.” SImon said firmly, trying to get back in control of the teenagers. The two boys looked away from one another and back at Simon. “Even if you three are here to cause…difficulties, I can’t throw you out, it’s against policy. So I’m going to say it like this: try not to come back unless you’re actually serious. Got it?” He gave Gary, Dean, and Freddie a look that they all shied away from.

The teacher turned to Kieren, “Mr. Walker, would you like to finish off our exciting round of introductions?”

Kieren nodded, “I’m Kieren, of course. I’m demisexual.”

“What’s that?” Dean asked.

“It means he likes that Demi Lovato chick.” Freddie said, whacking him on the shoulder for asking such a stupid question.

“No, it means he has to have a connection with the person in order to experience any sexual attraction to them.” Simon clarified.

“Oh.” Dean and Freddie both said at the same time and Gary made a sound that Kieren couldn’t interpret.

“Now that that’s over, why don’t we talk about what we want this club to become?” Simon looked around the group. “You came in here with an idea in mind of what it was going to be.” He nodded his head towards Gary’s group, “Except you three.” He turned to Amy, “I’m sure you’re full of plans, Amy.” 

"Yes.” Amy said, reaching into her bag and pulling out her notebook (which was obnoxiously pink and sparkly). She flipped a few pages in, “I have a list.”

“Oh good lord.” Gary said under his breath, now wishing he had forfeited coming to the club.

Simon glanced over the list. “Wow. Okay. I don’t think there’s enough people in the club for a parade.” She scratched out with words ‘Pride Parade’ from the list. “Is that…does your pen smell like-”

“Blueberries. Yep.” She grinned. Kieren rested his head on his desk and let out a breath that sounded suspiciously like a sigh. _Well at least Gary and his lot are suffering._


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was in the middle of writing this chapter when I realized that I need another chapter before it for it to make sense. So I wrote this all in one night, I was on a roll. You're welcome. (It's only 1100 words but *shrugs*)

Kieren Walker wasn’t late to class. Kieren Walker was _extremely_ late to class. And his backpack was not helping him in the slightest, it must have weighed at least fifty pounds, hitting against the back of his thighs every time he took a step, threatening to push him over at a single provocation. He hadn’t meant to sleep in, it was a Friday, his parents had gone to work early and weren’t around to make sure he got up on time. Of course it was completely his own fault, he was having the most lovely dream about Simon. The most lovely _unexpected_ dream about Simon.

It started out like every other dream he had: he was running.

 

> In the forest. Running, stumbling over logs and rocks trying to get away. He had to get away. He either got away or… A branch scraped across his cheek. There was a deep growl from behind him. Or was that in front of him? He looked back but tripped on a log in front of him, sending him to the ground.
> 
> Get up. Get up. He has to get up. He tries to stand but his legs won’t work. The leaves crumble under him as he crawls backward to a tree. Looking all around, the shadows seem to move. His breath came out in pants, his heart beat against his ribs, desperate to escape. Maybe if he closed his eyes, maybe it would be quick, maybe he wouldn’t have to suffer quite so much.
> 
> The growling steadily became closer, seemingly coming from every direction. But he didn’t dare open his eyes. He heard the crunch of leaves as someone or something walked closer and closer. But he wasn’t about to open his eyes. He could smell it now, rank and hollow at the same time, it was engulfing him, strangling him. It smelled like death.
> 
> Leaves crunched nearby and suddenly everything was lifted. Now he could hear the birds and the breeze, smell the damp ground and the trees. He could breath again. The crunching got closer, stopping at his side. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. “Kieren.” Simon was crouched down beside him, looking at him with his head tilted. Finally he felt calm, safe.
> 
> Kieren looked down and smiled at the ridiculous sweater that Simon had on, it was about three sizes too big for the man and was an alarming shade of green. But it looked like the softest material and he had a strong desire to be wrapped up in the other man’s arms.
> 
> Then he was leaning up to press a kiss to the other man’s lips. A kiss that was returned wholeheartedly.
> 
> He was lowered gently down to a pile of leaves that crunched beneath him as he made contact. The kisses had become heated. A warm hand slid up his shirt, he groaned and pushed his hips up against the other man. His pants were gone, also his shirt. They were grinding against each other, moaning into each other skin. Kieren felt like he could fly.

 

He opened up his locker quickly—after the fifth time trying to put in the combination, it seemed like everything was working against him when he was in a hurry. It was third period already, he might make the last half of the class if he could hurry. Then, just like the universe was taking a shit on him, Gary walked around the corner.

“Hey there Walker.” Gary said with a grin as he walked towards him. Despite the fact that he was all alone did nothing to detract from the dread that Kieren felt. He was pressed roughly up against the locker next to his, Gary pinning him against it with his own body. “Bit late today, I didn’t get to see you this morning.”

Kieren grimaced, being nose to nose with Gary Kendal was not on his list of things to do that day. “Yeah, could you fuck off to somewhere else? Anywhere else.”

“Why should I listen to you, eh?”

“Because you’re breathing in my face.” Kieren said, turning his face to breath in some fresh air. “Besides, why are you so close?”

“What? You don’t like me up in your personal space, Walker?” Gary said, “Are you uncomfortable?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Gary said, patting Kieren’s cheek lightly. “Now into the locker.”

Kieren turned to look at him. “What?” But he was already being crowded into his open locker, turning just as the door closed.

“Bye Walker.” Gary looked through the vent of the locker at him and smiled before walking away, whistling a happy tune.

“Damn it, Gary.” Kieren rested his forehead against the door of the locker. It was a tight fit, but somehow the awkward teen managed to fit in the locker. Kieren couldn’t complain about the lack of noise, the silence of the locker was actually calming. “Maybe this is how being in a coffin feels like.” He murmured to himself.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before he heard someone’s footsteps coming down the hall. “Hello?” He called out, hoping it wasn’t Gary again. “Help?”

It was Philip. “Kieren? How’d you get in there?” The other teen said, peering through the grate on the door at him.

“Gary.”

“Oh.” Philip said and nodded, “You ought to report that. What’s your combo?” Kieren recited the combination to his locker and within a matter of moments, he was free.

“Thanks, Philip.” Kieren said, “Is it still third period? What time is it?”

“Yeah it’s still third period, the bell rings in fifteen minutes.” He answered, “You need to report this.”

Kieren sighed and closed his locker. “Why? No one’s going to do anything about it. There’s no point. For all the anti-bullying the school promotes, they do a shit job at maintaining it.”

“Still.” Philip persisted.

“Alright, alright.” Kieren sighed again and started walking with the other boy to the office.

 

Amy was sitting at the front desk, twirling in her chair as they walked in. “Kieren! What are you doing here?” She perked up as she saw Kieren walked walked in, but frowned when Philip walked in after him. “Philip.”

Kieren thought it was an odd coincidence that Philip and Amy were both office aides durning the same hour, it couldn’t possibly be because Philip’s mother was the school nurse. He shrugged off the thought and greeted Amy. Kieren leaned against the counter to talk to her. “Gary pushed me in my locker, Philip thinks I should report it.”

“Don’t know what good it’ll do you.” Amy said with a shrug. “With all the talk of changes flying around in here, something like that’ll get buried. Besides, it’s not like they’d do anything in normal circumstances.”

“But the system-“ Philip started.

“The system doesn’t work.” Amy cut him off, “It’s fairly easy to see if you’d just open up your eyes.” She gave him a look. Kieren stayed in the office and watched the two fight until the bell rung to signal passing period.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not too happy with the ending of this chapter...But I decided that I'm probably not going to change it so might as well post it. It's a bit short it feels like, but it's really not I swear! :D

The next week went by in a flash and as soon as Kieren knew it, Thursday has rolled around. “Any mail?” Kieren asked his mom as he walked inside after the LGBTQ meeting. School club meetings usually only ran an hour at best, and it was a bit obvious that Simon didn’t have any idea what to do with the club past the first meeting. So, in a very Amy-like turn of events, Amy resumed responsibility as ‘Event Coordinator’, which was probably a good thing for the club. The result might be glitter everywhere, but at least the club didn’t slowly die out. 

Gary and his lot hadn’t turned up that week, which made everyone more open to discussion. Kieren felt that if every meeting was going to be like that, this whole club thing might just work out.  

“Sorry Honey, no.” His mother said from her place on the sofa. “Maybe it’ll come tomorrow?” She said, trying to cheer him up. He had sent a letter to Rick weeks ago, there should have been a letter back by now. Kieren’s mind raced with all the possible scenarios. Maybe he got taken by the enemy! Did people still do that? Prisoners of war? No, said a voice in the back of his mind, they just kill them. 

Kieren muttered a thanks to his mom, then wandered up to his room. He dropped his bag on the floor and collapsed onto his bed, shoving his face in his pillow. Something was wrong, Rick should have replied back already. Something was wrong. 

“Knock knock.” He turned his head on his pillow to see Jem at his doorway. “No letter yet?” She said as she walked in and sat on his bed. “Didn’t you mail one ages ago?” He turned to lay on his side and nodded. “Well what’s taking him so long then? Oh, maybe he’s on a secret mission and he can’t get any word out because it would compromise everything?” She grinned down at him. “Or maybe he sent it by carrier pigeon.” 

“Alright, that’s it.” Kieren announced. Soon screams could be heard downstairs. Steve peeked his head out of the kitchen and looked at his wife with a confused look. Sue shrugged and moments later the parents could hear the clunking of Kieren’s boots as he walked down the stairs. He had is comforter thrown over his right shoulder, gathered up at the ends to conceal a large writhing mass. “Just taking out the trash.” Kieren told his parents as he started to walk to the door. 

“Kieren, don’t throw your sister in the trash.” Sue said as she returned back to her magazine and Steve ducked back into the kitchen. The teenager deposited the younger sibling on the sofa, letting her flail to right herself as he retreated back upstairs quickly. Jem looked at her mother, her hair in disarray from the scuffle with her brother. “You gonna let him get away with that?” Jem smiled and dashed upstairs. 

Steve poked his head out of the kitchen again as he heard Kieren’s high pitched screams. “You really shouldn’t tempt the girl, you know what she’s capable of.”

“So does Kieren.” Sue replies back. “You think he would learn by now.” There was a loud thunk from upstairs. “Better go make sure that no one’s dying.” She set down her magazine and stood up to go check on them. 

“Or dead.” Steve added before returning to the kitchen. A short time after, he heard Sue yell: Jemima Walker, untie your brother! 

Sue walked into the kitchen and steve automatically said “She takes after you,” upon her arrival. 

“No she doesn’t she takes after you.” 

“No she-”

Kieren walked into the kitchen, “Oh, finally admitting that Jem is adopted?“  He got into the fridge and pulled out a chocolate bar he had been hiding from Jem. 

“No, we were— Jem isn’t adopted.” Steve said, giving his son a small frown. 

Kieren stood in front of him and stared. “Whatever you have on the stove is burning.” 

“Oh shit.” Steve rushed to get whatever _had_ _been_ the dinner, under the faucet before it caught fire. He placed the pan in the sink and turned around to face his wife and son. “I guess we’re ordering take out tonight.”

 

To be honest, Kieren despised his English journal. He was a couple of days behind and the entries that he _did do_ were shit in his opinion. Simon said that he was going to pick up the journals at the end of the week to see the students progress, so Kieren had two days to write _something_ substantial. 

He looked at the blank page and sighed. It would be easier if he could just draw on the page, he wasn’t a writer, he was an artist. He pulled out the class syllabus and looked at the ‘journal’ assignment paragraph. Technically the class was focused on creative writing, so why couldn’t Kieren just make up a story to fill up the missing pages? 

He stuffed the syllabus back into his backpack and looked back at the page, putting his pen to paper. 

 

> Its dark. Too dark. Like you’re in a void, the blackness swallows everything up. At first you don’t know where you are, if you’re anywhere at all. All you can hear is the sound of your breathing, ragged against your lips. You don’t know if you’re living or dead because you can feel nothing. 
> 
> You try and put your hands out in front of you, but they stop, hitting something hard. Solid. Push. It’s heavy but after a while it gives way. It gives way just the tiniest bit. And then a bit more. Soon you hear the sound of soil shifting, small rocks dropping through the crack and landing on the inside, onto you. You stop. Putting your hands back to your sides, realizing where you are. 
> 
>  

Kieren looked down at the scratchy words on the page. He felt he had to stop, there was nothing more he could write. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *rises from the dead* Oh hey look, I'm back. I have no excuses actually, for not updating. I mean, I started this chapter like five different times before I decided what I wanted to do. And then I wrote it all in class and failed to type it up until, like today. No excuses. I'm horrible. I'm sorry.

That weekend Amy was adamant on starting her bucket list. If Kieren never stepped in another beauty shop it would be too soon, he thought as Amy held up the same color of hair dye and asked him to pick the better one. “They look the same to me. They’re both blue.” He sighed, the acrid smell of the store starting to give him a headache. 

She hit him on the arm with one of the tubes, “You’re an artist, you’re supposed to know about colors and such. One is aqua teal and the other is-“ she looked at the tube, “blue ocean waters.” 

“It is literally the same color.” Kieren said, snatching the two tubes out of her hands and putting the colors on the bottle side by side. “The same.” Amy tutted and grabbed the ‘aqua teal’ bottle, throwing the other back on the shelf —Kieren quickly returned it to it’s proper place on the shelf before Amy could walk off and leave him lost in the store. 

“Have we got everything?” Amy asked more to herself than to him. He looked in the basket he was carrying, it looked like all the things to dye someones hair, but of course Kieren could only guess what would be needed. Amy had dyed her hair before, but claimed it didn’t count because she hadn’t officially started her bucket list then. She looked ahead at the checkout counter, “Hey isn’t that your French teacher?” She pointed and sure enough, there she was standing at the counter, talking away with the checker. Kieren’s mouth had started to form the word ‘no’ but Amy had already grabbed him by the arm and started to pull him towards his teacher. 

“But I am done with this town.” Kieren heard her say as they approached. 

“Hi Madame Flosse.” He said, not brave enough to say the one word in French that he needed to greet her with. 

She turned around dramatically, “Oh, bonjour mon petite pêche,” She said upon seeing Kieren. “How are you doing?” She asked as her eyes flitted to Amy, trying to make sense of the strange girl in the bright clothes. 

“I’m okay.” Kieren gave her a small smile, and she nodded absent-mindedly, already considering the conversation done. She turned back to the checker, taking her bag. “See you Monday then.” 

“Perhaps.” The woman said, turning to give Kieren a smile before flitting off. 

 

First period French that day consisted of a room full of students and no teacher. The bell rand and everyone took their seats and waited. Well, Kieren waited, the rest of the class started to squirm. Ten minutes in, everyone started asking the obvious question: “fifteen minutes. It’s fifteen minutes right?” Fifteen minutes and the class was officially cancelled. Kieren didn’t think that was _actually_ a rule though, more like a rumor or a legend, just like the story at finals: if someone died taking the final exam, everyone would receive their projected grade from before the exam and the test was cancelled. Of course Kieren never knew of something like that actually happening, but as the clock ticked to the quarter after mark, the teacher was no where to be found. There was usually a substitute if the teacher was sick, but he had just seen the teacher this weekend with Amy, she couldn’t have gotten sick _that_ quickly. Kieren hoped nothing happened to her. 

The door of the classroom opened and the Principal entered the room. Kieren had only seen the Principal of the high school twice during his time there. Once during Freshman orientation and the other…wait, only once had he seen the Principal. The man walked in and stopped at the front of the room, clearing his throat loudly. “Good morning students. I have some bad news. Your French teacher, Misses Fosse has left this letter to explain, I have already read it but she has requested it to be read to your as well.” He unfolded the paper he was holding and began to read: 

“Bonjour. I hope you are doing well on this magnificent day as I know I am. At the current moment I am already on my way to my Amore’ in France. I cannot continue to live my life here in Roarton any longer. There is nothing for me here when everything I love is there. I wish you all the best in your endeavors.”

His eyes scanned down the page, obviously skipping over more than a few paragraphs.

“Students, continue your studies, especially in the French Language. Pay attention in class, the teachers _do_ notice. Love is out there is you dare to look. Goodbye my sweets, au revoir - Madame Fosse”

The Principal looked back up at the students who were silent for the first time in their school career. “So she just left?” A girl in the front row asked. 

“Yes. No notice until this letter.” The Principal responded, “Otherwise we could have found a substitute as soon as we received this letter. We tried to find someone but there wasn’t anyone. No teacher or substitute within 50 miles. ” He trailed off, looking over the mass of students. ”So the obvious thing is to have everyone switch into a different language class. I’ll stay here to make sure you students don’t get up to mischief, I’ll send a you a few at a time to the office to switch into a different class.” 

 Being in the front row, Kieren was one of the first students to be sent to the office. The two other girls with him, detoured to the bathroom, the complete opposite way. He entered the office alone, facing the agitated stare of the office woman behind the counter. She almost glared at him as he walked up. “Um, I’m from the French class?” He asked uncertainly, not sure if she even knew what he was talking about. 

She nodded curtly, “Second door on the left, straight down the hall.” The woman looked backed down at her magazine, flipping the page with an irritated sigh. 

Kieren muttered a ‘thank you’, before shuffling down the hallway past the front desk. He peeked into an open room that looked like a sea of beige. Everything was cream-colored. The walls, the floors, the cabinets that lined the walls, the table, the chairs, even the deflated looking couch that sat in the back corner. The only thing that looked like a splash of color in the bland vat of boring was the dark figure, standing beside the grey copier, with a red coffee mug. “Simon.” Kieren muttered as he recognized the slant of the other man’s shoulders. 

Simon turned when he heard his name, barely audible over the repetitive shuffling of the copier. He smiled when he saw the boy. “Hey, Kieren. How are things?” He asked, putting on a slightly confused face while wondering why the teenager was in the office. 

“Yeah.” Kieren shrugged, “French teacher went AWOL, so I have to change into another class.” 

“AWOL?” 

“Yeah, she left to go to be with her lover in France.” 

“Oh.” The older man’s eyes widened slightly. He chose not to say anything else about the matter, not quite sure what was appropriate in this situation. 

“Yeah.” Kieren said again, mentally kicking himself for being so inarticulate. “I gotta-” he motioned down the hallway. 

“Oh, yeah, of course. See you in class.” Simon smiled at him once more before turning back to watch the paper fly out of the noisy copier. 

With one last lingering look, Kieren continued his journey to the councilors office. He knocked lightly on the open door. “Come in.” The councilor said, not looking up from her place at her computer. Kieren shuffled in, taking a seat in one of the provided chairs that faced the desk. “You’re from the French class?” Kieren nodded, then realized that she probably couldn’t see him, since she was so absorbed in clicking things on her computer. He was about to respond verbally, but she spoke first. “German, Chinese, or Spanish?”

Kieren blinked. “Excuse me?” 

“Do you want to be place in German, Mandarin Chinese, or Spanish class?” 

“I…um…” When he decided to take French it had taken him about a month before school started to confirm that it was what he really wanted to take. Pushed into a split second decision like this, he mentally flailed. 

The councilor finally looked over at him with a sigh, “Sorry for being so…direct. It was supposed to be my day off today.” She explained. 

“Oh.” Kieren replied awkwardly, “I’m sorry.” He murmured, unsure of what else to say in response. He probably wasn’t helping her with his indecision, making him mentally flail even more. 

“Name?” She looked back at her computer, her fingers poised over the keyboard. 

“Kieren Walker.” He answered and she quickly entered his name into the search bar of the program. K-I-E-R-A-N. Before the teen had a chance to correct her spelling, his name popped up as a search result along with the horrid picture that he took last year. 

“What class do you want?” The councilor asked dully, sighing when Kieren didn’t answer right away. “German, Spanish, or Chinese?” 

Kieren stared at her blankly, opening his mouth to let out an unintelligent “uh” escape. 

“Honestly,” the woman started, leaning over her desk to whisper to him, “With all this _Maxine Martin_ bull, I could probably put you in any class you want and no one would be the wiser.” She sat back and scrolled through his profile, “You’re a good kid. I could make sure you still get the language credit you need with less work. Hell, you might even learn more than being in a first semester language class.” 

Kieren only thought about it for a second, blurting out: “I could be a student aide for Si-Mr. Monroe? I know he has first period off, and I don’t think he would mind.” He trailed off into a quiet mutter, hoping the man in question would, in fact, not mind. 

“He the new English teacher?” The older woman gave him a sideways glance, as she clicked a few things on her screen. “He’s nice looking.“ 

“That’s not why- I don’t…” Kieren verbally stumbled making the councilor laugh. 

“Don’t worry about it kid.” She said, giving her computer mouse a final click. “Why don’t you go and see if he’s okay with it, if he’s not, come back and we can figure something out. If I don’t see you within the next couple of hours I’ll know that he’s okay with it.” She nodded at Kieren then looked at the couple of students hovering by her door in the hallway. 

Kieren nodded back, standing and muttering a ‘thanks’ before shuffling out the door. On his way past, he looked into the teacher’s lounge again, hoping that the dark headed man was still in there. Of course he wasn’t, but it was just Kieren’s luck that when he turned around he ran into the English teacher. “Oh!” He let out, startling Simon to attention. 

The older man looked down at him. “Kieren! Sorry, I was spacing out.” Simon smiled and moved past the teen and back into the lounge, going to the coffee machine and refilling his cup. Kieren followed in him. “Need something?” 

“I hope you don’t mind, but I asked to be your student aide for first period.” Kieren said, shifting back and forth on his heel. “I told the councilor you wouldn’t min…” He bit at his bottom lip in anxiety. 

Simon turned slightly towards the teen as he was pouring coffee into his red mug. “Yeah sure, I’d love to have you-” He started pouring cream and sugar into the dark liquid, “as an aide.” He quickly added. “Don’t you need 2 years language credit though? Isn’t that still a thing you need to graduate?” 

“Yeah, the councilor said that she could easily write it off, what with all this Maxine Martin mess. Is that the new supervisor? Maxine Martin?” 

“Yeah, yeah that’s her alright.” Simon gave a semi-dramatic sigh and turned to fully face Kieren. “She’s trying to reboot the entire system. It’s screwing up a lot of things right now.” He shrugged. “I would suggest you take advantage of it while you can.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be lecturing me about the importance of language and how I should be taking another language class instead?” Kieren tried not to smile at the other man. 

“Speaking from a former student perspective. It wasn’t that long ago that I was in high school myself.” Simon shrugged, “I’m just telling you what I would have liked to hear in your situation.” 

“So you _actually_ believe that learning a foreign language is important?” 

“No. Not in high school anyway. Why learn something that you’re just going to forget because you don’t practice after the class is finished?” He started walking out of the lounge, the teen followed him. “Maybe it’s all just a ploy to get someone to do literature experiments on.” Kieren stopped walking, and Simon turned back to look at him. “What?”

The teen just gave him a look that said ‘you know what, you dork.’ 


End file.
